A Star-Spangled Mayfair Read online

  He was sitting at the end of the booth’s bench, his eyes flicking every few seconds to the pass-through. I wondered if he’d positioned himself in that spot on purpose so he could watch Jess in the kitchen.

  The next oldest Baker, his sister Allie, spotted me and gave a little finger wave.

  She’d also been part of the craziness last October that had put my infant godson at risk, so not exactly one of my favorite people.

  Be nice, my inner Mom admonished.

  I gave Allie a small nod. That was the best I could do.

  Jess hailed me from behind the large pass-through. The chef’s hat was gone—her hair was pinned back under a hairnet—and her jacket, by this point in the day, was not all that white anymore.

  She gestured for me to come into the kitchen. Once through the swinging door, I patted the top of my head.

  “It kept falling into the food,” she said.

  I snickered before I could stop myself.

  She grinned.

  “How’s Dan doing?” I asked.

  Her grin faded. “Okay.”

  “I guess his injuries give you an excuse to cancel the July fourth bash.”

  “Nope. He and Edna are planning it as we speak.” Her lips pursed in an unhappy moue, as she squeezed icing out of a tube onto the mini-cupcakes lined up in front of her.

  “Did he apologize for not talking to you about it first?”

  Jess’s face softened some. “Yes. He said he didn’t realize I disliked crowds that much. I told him I plan to stay in the kitchen most of the time. He seemed to understand.”

  I smiled. “So, as you said before, in a few weeks, it will be behind you. Have you set a new wedding date yet?” I still didn’t quite understand why they hadn’t gotten hitched in May as planned, but who was I to question such things.

  “August seventeenth, but we’re waiting until after the kids are back in school before we go on our honeymoon.” She tilted her head in the general direction of the teenagers in the diner. “I don’t want to take away their summer hangout. They’ve got no place else to go, and as we know, bored kids can get into trouble.”

  I grimaced. Billy Baker had been more than bored when he’d caused so much distress last fall. More like sullen and resentful.

  “Hey, would you object,” Jess said, “if I hired Billy to make lunchtime deliveries?”

  I gave her a small smile. “You scare me sometimes. I was just thinking about him.”

  “Your expression gave that away.”

  “I’m okay with you hiring him. But thanks for asking.”

  “Hey, I know you’re not too fond of him, and I don’t blame you. I’d be furious with anyone who’d put one of my family members at risk.” Her mouth puckered again. “Not that I have any family at this point, except Dan.”

  My heart ached a little for her, even as a warmth spread through my chest. “Thank you for getting it that Becky and her babies are family. And sure, go ahead and hire Billy. He could use a break at this point.”

  “Yeah. He swears he didn’t leave that pitchfork in the loft, that he didn’t even have it up there recently.”

  “And you believe him.” A statement. I could tell from her tone that she did. “Do you think Dan left it there and then forgot?”

  She shook her head. “No, he’s a fanatic about putting tools in their proper place. Says it’s the only way he can keep track of them.”

  “Then how’d it get up there?”

  She shrugged. “That’s a darn good question.”

  Shortly after four, Buddy and I had just finished a training session with our sole trainee. Usually I have two dogs going at once, at different levels of training, while my assistant, Stephie, is starting yet a third, reinforcing the basics like come and stay. But I’d had a delay last winter delivering Nugget, a Golden Retriever-mix, to her new owner. That had thrown me off schedule.

  Then Stephie had decided she was ready to try her hand at the more advanced levels of training. So she was continuing with our newest dog herself, with me acting as her supervising trainer.

  I was enjoying the bit of a break in my normally rigorous schedule, and Mattie Jones, the director of the agency I train for, was looking for a new assistant/trainer-in-training for me.

  I was really going to miss Stephie, but I understood she was ready to graduate and become a trainer herself.

  My current dog was a true mutt. About fifty pounds and thigh-high, he definitely had some larger breed in him. But his face and his coat said that most of his genes were Wire Fox Terrier. His coat was medium-length, dense and wiry, some areas of it black and others a grayish-white sprinkled with brown and black flecks that would be called “flea-bitten” if he were a horse.

  Edna had commented that he was ugly as a mud fence. True, but he was a sweetie, and as bright as they come. His soon-to-be-new owner had named him Fred.

  With Fred in his crate, happily chewing on a treat, Buddy and I relaxed in the kitchen of my old house, now my training center. Buddy was snoozing and I was swigging down some iced tea, when the doorbell rang.

  Buddy opened one eye and stared up at me, as if to say, “Do you need me for this?”

  I chuckled. “Stay put, boy.”

  I got up and ambled through my old living room, now sparsely furnished with the space in the middle of the room left uncluttered for training.

  I walked into the new section of Will’s and my house—a large living area, open kitchen and dining nook combined. Pausing for a second to admire the frosted-glass insets in our polished-wood front door, I let out a happy sigh before pulling it open.

  The first thing I saw was a white bag, stained with grease along the bottom and bearing the pink logo of the Mayfair Diner. Like one of Pavlov’s dogs, my mouth watered.

  Then I noticed the sheepish face of the delivery boy holding up the bag.

  “Jess sent this over,” Billy Baker said with a slight Cracker accent. “She wants yer opinion on this stew recipe.”

  I took the bag and caught a whiff of lamb. My stomach growled. “Thanks.” I started to close the door.

  “Um, Mz. Banks, I mean Haines.”

  I froze. If the kid was expecting a tip….

  He looked down, scuffed the toe of his sneaker against the surface of the wide porch. “Sorry for what happened last Halloween. My mom’s been buggin’ me forever to come and apologize.”

  He scuffed his foot again on the porch and stared off to the side. “I, um…I’ve been in counseling. The judge made me go, but now I’m glad he did. The counselor, he’s really helped me figure some stuff out.”

  Curious, I asked, “Like what?”

  “Like it’s not the town’s fault that I’m stuck here, that I feel as if I can’t breathe in this tiny place.” He stopped and, ironically, took a deep breath. “I just gotta bide my time until I can go off to college.”

  “Oh, where do you want to go?” Now I was mostly being polite.

  The kid broke out a grin. “To the big city. Gainesville.”

  I stifled a laugh. Gainesville was hardly a “big” city. Its two-hundred-thousand residents were a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the Baltimore metro area where I was from. And no way was this kid getting into the University of Florida. His grades weren’t good enough.

  Since Billy couldn’t hear my thoughts, his grin was still intact. “I’m gonna study Zoo Technology at Santa Fe College.”

  There you go, making assumptions. My inner Mom shook her finger at me.

  I relaxed and gave Billy a genuine smile. “I’ve heard it’s a good school, and I think you’ll like Gainesville.”

  He cleared his throat and wiped his palm on his baggy shorts. He stuck out the hand. “No hard feelin’s then?”

  I shook his hand. “No hard feelings.”

  The lead up to the Independence Day Extravaganza was exciting—with red, white and blue bunting hanging around town. Folks were talking about how generous Jess’s fiancé was for financing the food for the whole town, plus any tourists the advertising managed to attract.

  And there would be at least some tourists. Edna might be a bit eccentric…

  A bit? Ms. Snark smirked.

  Okay, a lot eccentric, but she was a smart businesswoman, and she’d proven before that she knew how to promote such events. Of course, we were competing with other festivals and fireworks displays, in every small town in the area, although ours was the only one offering free food.

  There was also a lot of speculation going on as to how this newcomer to Mayfair could afford such extravagant generosity. From Jess I knew a little about Dan Taylor’s background, but I was resisting the temptation to gossip. And mostly people had the right idea. He’d made a killing in the stock market and had retired ridiculously early.

  The day before the fourth, Jess admitted to me that Dan had done the right thing by hiring a caterer. “No way would I want to feed that many people essentially for free, since Dan’s money and mine will soon be in the same pot.”

  * * *

  Independence Day dawned sunny and hot.

  Edna’s niece and I had agreed to provide pony rides for the kids. We trailered my black mare, Niña, and Susanna’s miniature palomino horse, Queenie, out in the early morning.

  They were now tucked away in stalls in the barn, munching on hay until it was time for their duties to begin. Susanna had tied red, white and blue ribbons on Queenie’s harness. I hoped their fluttering didn’t spook the small horse.

  I was surprised to find Billy Baker reinstated. Dan had him running all over the farm fetching supplies, as his boss alternated between glad-handing the early guests and dealing with the little problems that inevitably come up during the set up for such an event.

  The only time the kid seemed to slow down was
when he caught sight of Jess. He’d stare her way for a few seconds, before remembering whatever errand he was on and taking off again.

  My second surprise of the day was Edna’s outfit. Especially for the occasion, she’d made a tunic that was a shortened version of her muumuu pattern—blue and white stripes with big red stars on it. She wore it with the black stretch slacks that were part of her hotelier’s outfit, the one she greeted guests in at the Mayfair Motel. And she sported new red, white and blue flip-flops.

  With her hair somewhat more subdued than usual, she looked almost normal.

  Surprise number three occurred midway through our morning stint of pony rides. Agnes Baker, Billy’s mother, showed up with her three youngest. We were leading kids around a large loop of mown grass in a field near the food stands—the older kids on my Niña and those four and under in the little cart pulled by Queenie.

  Eight-year-old Sarah Baker trotted over. “Hi, ma’am.” She grinned up at me. “Mama says I can ride by myself.”

  I didn’t think that was exactly what Agnes had meant. She’d no doubt told the child she could come over “by yourself,” to avoid having to talk to me. The Bakers had been keeping a low profile ever since last Halloween.

  But as I stared across the field to where Agnes was settling her little boys into the pony cart, I felt no animosity toward the woman. I couldn’t really hold her kids’ actions against her. In Billy’s case, he’d made his own choices and had suffered the consequences accordingly, and now seemed repentant. And Allie’s actions had been more misguided than malicious.

  After the Baker children had been led in circles enough times to begin to wilt in the hot sun, Agnes retrieved the boys from Susanna and headed our way.

  I helped Sarah down from Niña’s back.

  Agnes dropped her gaze to her middle child. “Did you thank Mrs. Haines for letting you ride her horse?”

  I feigned horror and wildly looked around. Hand patting my chest as if my heart were pounding, I said, “Lordy, Agnes, don’t do that to me. I thought my mother-in-law had snuck up behind me.”

  Sarah laughed, although I doubted she understood the mother-in-law implications—truth be told, I’d yet to meet my new mother-in-law, whom Will swore would adore me.

  Agnes Baker’s face lit up in a smile.

  My insides relaxed.

  Well done, my inner Mom said.

  My chest warmed. Thanks, Mom.

  Sarah thanked me prettily for the pony ride, Agnes nodded, and she and her children walked away. My gaze followed them as they made their way toward the food tables.

  Low rumbling at my knee.

  Startled, I glanced down. Buddy was also staring in the direction the Bakers had gone.

  I looked that way again, and spotted the source of his concern.

  Jess and Dan stood behind one of the caterer’s trucks, and they were having a rather vehement argument, if all the gesturing was any indicator.

  Dan leaned forward, towering over her, his hands thrown out in a what-do-you-want-from-me gesture.

  Buddy growled again, and my breath caught in my throat.

  My gaze shifted to Jess. She had her head cocked back, just inches from his chest, and it looked like she was holding her own, verbally at least, spitting words up into his face.

  I dropped a hand to Buddy’s head, reassuring him that it was okay. Dan didn’t seem the type who’d hit a woman.

  Then Jess’s arm moved, gesturing toward the caterer’s truck, and sunlight glinted off of metal.

  My heart missed a beat.

  Jess was brandishing a huge knife.

  Chapter Three

  I normally wouldn’t interfere in a couple’s quarrel, but if Jess was about to draw blood….

  I took off toward them, Buddy alongside—and was pulled up short by Niña’s reins in my hands.

  She’d been snoozing, taking advantage of the lack of a little rider on her back. I got her moving, and we all trotted toward the truck.

  While I’d been distracted, Dan had disappeared. And Jess no longer held the knife.

  Did she skewer and bury him that quick? Ms. Snark asked.

  Somehow I doubted it.

  Jess rubbed her hands over her bare arms, despite the blazing July heat. Unlike my sweat-soaked red tank top, her white sleeveless shirt was still crisp, tucked into denim shorts.

  “Hey there,” I said as we approached, trying to sound casual.

  “Hi.” Her worried gaze stayed fixed on some distant point, probably where Dan had gone.

  I wasn’t sure what to say. I thought you were about to knife your fiancé seemed a bit abrupt.

  She rubbed her arms again and turned her attention to me. “Did you get anything to eat yet?”

  “Not yet.” I held up Niña’s reins. “I’ve been giving pony rides.”

  “Better get something soon. Dan says things are going fast.”

  I moved to stand beside Jess, getting myself and Niña’s head into the shade of the truck. Buddy plunked down next to its back tire. “Did anybody think to count the number of people?”

  “Edna tried by having Dexter give out free raffle tickets, out by the field where the cars are parked. But people got impatient and started walking on past him.”

  I could imagine poor Dexter, Susanna’s son and Edna’s great nephew, almost in tears as he tried to do his assigned task. He was in his late thirties but he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, and he hated to displease others, especially his Aunt Edna who’d raised him.

  Jess glanced my way, must’ve caught the concern in my eyes. “Edna told him not to worry about it. But up to that point, he’d given out just under two-hundred of them.”

  “So we’re most likely close to the three-hundred folks that Edna’d hoped for.” Two-thirds of which would be Mayfair residents, but a whole bunch of non-residents now knew that Mayfair existed, and that was a good thing indeed.

  Jess surveyed the large crowd in the distance. “I gotta get back to the kitchen.”

  “I thought the lunch food was all out.”

  “It is. I brought out a big knife for Dan to cut the watermelons. The caterer forgot to bring one.”

  “Oh.” That explained the deadly weapon. It was intended to skewer melons, not fiancés.

  Jess nodded toward the food tables. “We’ve got another round to serve up later though, for supper before the fireworks.”

  “I’ll walk with you. I think I need to get Niña out of the sun for a while. Get her a drink of water.”

  That was certainly a worthy cause, but mostly I wanted to support Jess.

  And find out what she and Dan were fighting about, Ms. Snark said.

  Well yeah, that too.

  I fell in beside Jess, Niña trailing behind, Buddy at my knee.

  “Um, you and Dan looked like you weren’t in total agreement about something.”

  Jess sighed. “You might say that. I was trying to be nice awhile back, so I thanked him for hiring a caterer, told him it was a lot more work than I wanted to do. He turned around and used that to get a discount with the caterer, said I’d send bigger jobs her way, ones I couldn’t handle.”

  “Okay.” I wasn’t totally sure why that was a bad thing.

  “Well, he might have been a brilliant stockbroker, but he’s a lousy businessman. You never admit to the competition that you can’t handle some jobs. Who knows how this Linda person will use that against me.” She waved toward one of the caterer’s trucks we were approaching, which had a logo and Linda’s Catering on its side.

  As we came up next to the truck, Jess stopped and curled the fingertips of one hand under the edge of the logo. She peeled it partway off, then slapped it back into place. It was a magnetized sign.

  “Few caterers have this many trucks or staff. When you have a big job like this, you rent extra trucks and hire temporary people.”

  “So you could handle a job this big.”

  “Most definitely. I’d kill for a job like this—good money and all this exposure.” She waved a hand to encompass the crowd of people. “But doing it for Dan would essentially be doing it for free, since his money will soon be my money too. And it’s hours and hours of work.”

  “Um, just say so if this is none of my business, but are you rethinking marrying him?”